Stjbf life-boat



' after being overturned.

MORTIMER M. CAMP, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT.

SURF LIFE-BOAT.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 25,882, dated October 25, 1859.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MORTIMER M. CAMP, of New Haven, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented certain. new and useful Improvements in Surf Life-Boats; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, in wl1ich Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of the boat, taken at the line of the center of its width, and Fig.2 a transverse section taken at the center ofits length.

My improvements relate to that class of life-boats known and distinguished as surf boats, or boats that are kept on shore at life-saving stations, and other points on the sea coast, and are launched into the water'in case their services are required for purposes of saving life or property from wrecke ves= sels lying off from the shore. It is requisite that such a boat should be sufiicientlylightto be readily launched or putinto the water from the shore with-at mostthe power of the number of persons reqiiired as a crew to man and work her, but this lightness is objectionable in case the boat is to be used'durling a storm or in a heavy running seaincidents, and the cause of most of the wrecks at seaby reason of the boat not having suf ficient weight or ballast to steady her. It is also requisite that such a boat should be able to resume her proper positionor be made self-righting -in case she should be overturned when exposed to the action of a cross sea, or from any other cause. It is further required that she" should be provided with air chambers so located and arranged as to give to her a great degree ofbuoyancy 1n case she should be overturned, or should be filled with water; that she may be righted and brought to proper position in the first case, and remain and be kept upon the'surface of the water in the latter case. It is necessary also that the boat should be self-bailing, or, provided with means to discharge and empty the water in the body of the boat thrown in by the wash of the sea, or brought up when the boat is righted My invention is intended to effect these results and purposes and consists, first, in providing a ballast chamber at the bottom of the hold of the boat, to contain water, which is made self-filling and self-emptying or which in other words is so constructed that in caseit is required to ballast the boat as in a storm or heavy sea-.-that the ballast chamber shall be filled with water when the boat is put into the water, and shall be emptied of its load of water when the boat is being drawn on shore; thereby allowing the boat to be built sufficiently light to be readily handled, and moved and put into the water by the exertions of the men required as a crew to man and work her; while the water which enters the ballast chamber constitutes a requisite amount of ballast to steady the boat in a heavy sea as perfectly as though the same weight of ballast was placed in her bottom as a fixture; second, in elevating the working floor of the boat to such a height above the floor or cover of the ballast chamber as to make an air tight chamber between the said two floors, which chamber, in combination with air chambers at the stem and stern of the boat, shall elevate the bottom of the boat to such a degree when the boat is overturned, that the water ballast in the ballast chamber shall operate with proper effect to restore the boat to its proper position; and

third, providing an arrangement of means by which the water that may be thrown or washed into the boat by the action of the sea, or which may remain in her after being righted when she has been overturned, may be emptied from the body of the'boat or that portion occupied by her passengers or crew.

.A is the hull of the boat, made of any of the materials used for life boats, and constructed with the pointed stern peculiar to I what isknown as the whale-boat model.

B is an air chamber at the stem, and B a similar one at the stern of the boat, to give to it.buoyancy. I

C is a floor or cover over the bottom of the boat, which makes and forms the ballast chamber D between its under side and the bottom of the boat. This chamber is made sufliciently large to contain such quantity of water as shall be required to furnish weight enough to ballast the boat to steady her in a heavy sea, that proportion being nearly the one shown in the drawings, but may be modified and varied (by increasing or diminishing the height of the floor above the bottom of the boat) to suit particular circumstances, among others, the material of which the boat is constructed, as the lighter that material is, the greater amount of ballast will be necessary to steady her, and vice versa.

E is an aperture through the bottom of the hull, through which the water enters the ballast chamber when the boat is put into the water, and leaves it (to empty the chamber) when the boat is being drawn out of the water to shore. This aperture is provided with a screw valve E, having a handle projecting above the working floor of the boat, by which it can be closed to prevent the admission of water to the ballast chamber in case the boat should be required to be used in calm weather and a still sea, when the ballast would be unnecessary and would only load down the boat without useful results.

' G, is the working floor, placed above the floor C at a sufficient distance to form between the two a spacious air chamber M. Its purpose in being thus located is twofoldfirst, to restrict the space in the boat that can be filled with water in case the boat should be overturned, or should be filled with the running of a heavy sea; and second, to act, in combination with the chambers B, B to ive buoyancy to the boat in case she shoul be overturned, so that the keel or bottom of the boat should be elevated above the surface of the water to such a degree as to make the water ballast in the ballast chamber operate to turn the boat back to proper position.

H is an air-pipe from the top of the ballast chamber, which allows the air to escape from, and enter into that chamber, and it is fitted with, or emptied of, its water.

I, I aredivision boards placed on each side of the boat, above, and on the working floor, and reaching to about the height of the rowers seats J, which are placed about 8 or 9 inches (at the center of their length) from the sides of the boat, and extend toward the stem and stern until they out onto, and meet the sides of the boat. Two or three apertures or scuppers are made in each side of the boat at the height of the top of the working floor, and between the points where the ends of the division boards out onto the sides of the boat. These division boards form receptacles between them and the sides of the boat which serve to assist to make the boat self-bailing when she is washed or filled by the sea, or is overturned, as the receptacles are filled with the water from the body of the boat, as she is rocked or rolled by the sea, and are emptied, by the water gathered in them running outboard through the apertures named, as the sides of the boat are alternately elevated above the exterior water line.

The boat is manned, propelled, and navigated in the same manner as the surf life boats of the usual construction.

In case the boat should have to be brought H for the purpose of ballasting the into use in a still sea and in calm weather, the valve F can be screwed down to close the aperture E to prevent the admission of water to the ballast chamber, the boat then being lighter in the water, and easier propelled than when the valve is left open and the ballast chamber is filled with water.

In the event of the boat being overturned by being struck by a sea, or from other causes, the air chambers at the stem and stern, combined with the position of the working floor, tends to keep the bottom of the boat at such height above the water that the weight of water in the ballast chamber operates to turn her back to her proper position; and the position of the working floor also tends to empty the body of the boat of water as she returns to position when overturned, as Well as to render it imposible to swamp or sink the boat when the body of the boat is filled by the running of the sea or other cause, as the buoyancy of the combined air chambers is more than suflicient to uphold the weight of the occupants of the boat and that of the water that may be thrown in as above mentioned. The roll of the boat in a heavy sea will empty the body of the boat of a large portion of the water that may be thrown into it by its running off from the working floor over the gunwales, and the most of What remains will be carried off by the operation of the division plates 1, I as described.

Although principally designed for, and herein described as a surf life-boat, this boat is equally fitted tobe used or a life-boat to be carried on ship board to be em loyed for saving life at sea; its qualities of lightness for handling, steadiness in the water, and exemptions from swamping or sinking making it superior for such purpose to any boat now used.

I am aware that surf life-boats have been constructed with ballast chambers at the bottom of the boat to contain water for balprovided with means designed to render them self-bailing; but such chambers required to be filled by hand before the boat was launched into the water, and the selfbailing arrangements were inoperative on account of the boat being left open below the water line, and therefore having space to hold water which could only be got rid of by bailing it out by hand in the ordinary manner.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. The combination of the water-ballast chamber D with the aperture E and air ipe oat when she enters the water, and of li htening it when she touches and reaches the shore as herein set forth.

2. The combination of the valve F with 110 last; and also that such boats have been 7 the ballast chamber D and aperture E for with the working floor G to form receptathe purpose specified. cles between said divisions and the sides of 3. The combination of the floors C and G the boat as, and for the purpose set forth. for the purpose of forming the air chamber MORTIMER M. CAMP. 5 M beneath the working floor and between Witnesses:

the two floors as herein described. CHARLES IVES,

4. The combination of the divisions I, I CHARLES ROBINSON. 

